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Monthly Archives: January 2012

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There are some, er, technical difficulties with the shop right now. Namely, a sick kid and my paranoia that the germs are traveling en masse via a green cloud of doom straight for my sinuses. So there’s been a lot of napping and juice drinking and generally not doing much of anything. Just a regular week here!

Today is my dad’s birthday. He would have been 62. I miss him. I dream about him a lot — mostly dreams where he’s annoying the shit out of me. I wake up feeling relieved that I’m still capable of remembering all of him, not just the good parts. There’s never any feeling in the dream of wrongness or “you’re not supposed to be here” stuff. Just… life with my dad. I’m glad that even though he’s not here anymore I can still have that conversation with him where I keep repeating something and he’s not getting it and I throw up my hands in frustration and he chuckles and we move on to talking about something else. Maybe he’s somewhere having that same conversation with me.

{I hope those of you who stopped by yesterday and were like, SOPA WHAT? clicked around and read about it. As a librarian — and a person with feelings — I’m against censorship. And against plain old stupidity. OK! Moving on.}

I have super exciting news!

I GOT A PONY!

Oh. Wait. No, sorry.

I GOT AN ETSY SHOP!

For the holidays, I decided I wanted to give my friends something handmade but that didn’t involve copious amounts of butter and sugar. Not because I don’t believe in butter and sugar — because DO I EVER — but because I wanted something that would last a little bit longer than a few days without going stale. I was going to be shipping some of these gifts across the country to recipients who would be traveling, and I wasn’t sure how long my sad little box would sit unattended at their door.

So! I made a sugar scrub. You know, for hands and such. Well, mostly for hands. And a lip balm. FOR THE LIPS. And my mom helped me package it and she also tested some of my early mixes. The batch that won was the one that made her say, “I’d pay for this. And I know a lot of people who would pay for it, too.”

DING!

I turned the idea over and over, and decided that yes. I could do this. I could sell this. I would make it and it would be lovely, and I would put pictures of it online, and perhaps people would click and think, “Oh! Doesn’t that look lovely! And my hands are so dry and grizzled from this hideous winter weather. A scrub would be just the solution.” And then send money to my Pay Pal account and in return receive a pretty package from me with their winter weather solution.

I labored over a name. All the good ones were taken. I wanted clever but not cutesy. I wanted the name to give a shopper an idea of ME and of what the products represented. And so, after much haranguing of the internet and my husband, I woke up in the middle of the night with the name. It’s not a show stopper. It’s not going to make anyone chuckle. But it’s the name that stuck.

The shop’s not quite ready yet. I’m planning the grand opening for this weekend. There will be goodies — I hope you stop by. I’m so excited about this venture of mine. It’s a test for me in so many ways, and I’m ready for the challenge.

{I also want to thank all of the folks who helped me brainstorm name ideas and supported my ideas and asked for more! information! because yay! indie business! You guys are the best.}